Afghan election fraud allegations mount as Hamid Karzai extends lead

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, must acquire more than half the votes cast to avoid a second round of voting. Pool/Reuters

Hamid Karzai extended his lead in Afghanistan's presidential election today as the British ambassador to Kabul warned fraud and vote rigging could determine the outcome of last week's vote.

Figures released today show that after the votes from 17% of Afghanistan's polling stations have been counted Karzai's slender lead over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, has increased. It now stands at 44.8% to 35.1%.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) plans to give daily updates on the progress of the count, with a preliminary result expected between 3 and 7 September. A final result is expected around 17 September.

Karzai must win more than half the votes cast to triumph outright and avoid a second round of voting between him and Abdullah in October.

Speaking via video link from Kabul, the British ambassador, Mark Sedwill, said the authorities were investigating 200 allegations of electoral fraud, "35 to 40" of which could be "material to the outcome" if upheld.

He defended coalition efforts to provide security leading up to polling day after it was reported that as few as 150 people voted in an area which was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting for British troops.

He said it was too early to know how many people went to the dozen polling stations in the area between Lashkar Gah and Gereshk but admitted that some Afghans had travelled to more secure regions to cast their votes.

"There is some evidence, but it is only anecdotal, that people from outlying areas travelled into more secure areas like Lashkar Gah in order to vote because they felt more confident in doing so. We don't yet know the extent to which people moved around."

Officials insist it is too early to predict the outcome of the election, but Sedwill said it would be considered a success if the result reflected the will of the people and gave the winner a genuinely national mandate. "That's the test we have always set, rather than focusing on individual elements of the process or the inevitable irregularities that we know would happen across the country."

But he admitted polling day had been extremely violent, with about 400 reported attacks, and that Taliban intimidation had an impact on the turnout.

"The insurrection is spreading and has spread since 2006." He added: "We expected the intimidation … would have some effect and clearly it did."